New Article: Imhoff et al, Differences in Attributions for the Holocaust in Germany, Israel, and Poland

Imhoff, Roland, Michał Bilewicz, Katja Hanke, Dennis T. Kahn, Naomi Henkel-Guembel, Slieman Halabi, Tal-Shani Sherman, and Gilad Hirschberger. “Explaining the Inexplicable: Differences in Attributions for the Holocaust in Germany, Israel, and Poland.” Political Psychology (early view; online first).

 

URL: https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0959353516647071

 

Abstract

Seventy years have passed since the Holocaust, but this cataclysmic event continues to reverberate in the present. In this research, we examine attributions about the causes of the Holocaust and the influence of such attributions on intergroup relations. Three representative surveys were conducted among Germans, Poles, and Israeli Jews to examine inter- and intragroup variations in attributions for the Holocaust and how these attributions influence intergroup attitudes. Results indicated that Germans made more external than internal attributions and were especially low in attributing an evil essence to their ancestors. Israelis and Poles mainly endorsed the obedient essence attribution and were lowest on attribution to coercion. These attributions, however, were related to attitudes towards contemporary Germany primarily among Israeli Jews. The more they endorsed situationist explanations, and the less they endorsed the evil essence explanation, the more positive their attitude to Germany. Among Germans, attributions were related to a higher motivation for historical closure, except for the obedience attribution that was related to low desire for closure. Israelis exhibited a low desire for historical closure especially when attribution for evil essence was high. These findings suggest that lay perceptions of history are essential to understanding contemporary intergroup processes.

 

 

 

New Article: Gavriely-Nuri, The Outbreak of Peace in Israeli Children’s Periodicals, 1977–79

Gavriely-Nuri, Dalia. “The Outbreak of Peace in Israeli Children’s Periodicals, 1977–1979.” Journal of Multicultural Discourses (early view; online first).

 
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17447143.2016.1153643

 
Abstract

This study focuses on two exceptional moments in the Egyptian–Israeli history of conflict: the visit of President Anwar Sadat to Jerusalem in November 1977 and the signing of the Israeli–Egyptian peace treaty in March 1979. Combining peace studies, cultural studies and discourse analysis, the article analyzes the response of Israeli most popular children’s periodicals to these dramatic peace events in real time, during the months in which they occurred. The article’s contribution to peace research lies in its ability to shed light on how intergenerational discourse conveys peace legacy, a relatively neglected arena in peace research. In doing so, it likewise focuses on the discursive ‘failures’ embedded in the Israeli peace discourse.

 

 

 

ToC: Journal of Israeli History 34.2 (2015)

Journal of Israeli History, 34.2 (2015)

No Trinity: The tripartite relations between Agudat Yisrael, the Mizrahi movement, and the Zionist Organization
Daniel Mahla
pages 117-140

Judaism and communism: Hanukkah, Passover, and the Jewish Communists in Mandate Palestine and Israel, 1919–1965
Amir Locker-Biletzki
pages 141-158

Olei Hagardom: Between official and popular memory
Amir Goldstein
pages 159-180

Practices of photography on kibbutz: The case of Eliezer Sklarz
Edna Barromi Perlman
pages 181-203

The Shishakli assault on the Syrian Druze and the Israeli response, January–February 1954
Randall S. Geller
pages 205-220

Book Reviews

Becoming Israeli: National Ideals and Everyday Life in the 1950s

Deborah Bernstein
pages 221-224

The “Magic Carpet” Exodus of Yemenite Jewry: An Israeli Formative Myth

Ari Ariel
pages 224-227

The Bride and the Dowry: Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinians in the Aftermath of the June 1967 War

Itamar Radai
pages 227-230

Editorial Board

Editorial Board

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New Article: Goldstein, Olei Hagardom: Between Official and Popular Memory

Goldstein, Amir. “Olei Hagardom: Between Official and Popular Memory.” Journal of Israeli History (early view; online first).

 

URL: https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13531042.2015.1068974

 

Abstract
This article examines the interaction between official memory and popular memory through the case study of Olei Hagardom – Jewish underground fighters executed by the British in Mandatory Palestine. Studies of collective memory usually maintain that the ruling elite, with its control of state resources, dominates collective memory formation. However, the case of Olei Hargardom demonstrates the potentially limited power of institutional commemoration and exclusion in a democratic society. David Ben-Gurion and his government’s attempt to exclude these right-wing heroes from the national pantheon had limited impact. Menachem Begin’s persistent, partisan political efforts to include them were only partially successful. Ultimately, Olei Hargardom became entrenched in Israeli collective memory as a result of apolitical literary works, popular culture, and the establishment of a site of memory by spontaneous, grassroots efforts.

 

 

New Book: Bar, Reinternment of Renowned Men in the Land of Israel, 1904-1967 (in Hebrew)

Bar, Doron. Ideology and Symbolic Landscape. The Reinternment of Renowned Men in the Land of Israel, 1904-1967. Jerusalem: Magnes, 2015 (in Hebrew).

 

 

Why was Theodor Herzl buried on a desolate mountaintop in West Jerusalem and why did his resting place remain many years with no tombstone?

What is the reason that Judah Leib Pinsker was buried in an ancient burial cave of the Second Temple period?

How was Ramat Hanadiv designed as a burial ground for Edmond Benjamin James de Rothschild?

Why was Otto Warburg buried in Degania?

Doron Bar’s new book examines these issues. Through detailed documentation and accompanying photographs, it delineates the journeys of these figures and other prominent leaders – visionaries of Zionism, political leaders, heroes, intellectuals and pioneers – from the diaspora to their reinternment in the Land of Israel. It examines the question regarding the reasons for the great efforts to bring their remains to burial in Israel, as well as the conduct of the necessary procedures in Israel and abroad. It discusses what made the graves of these prominent men – in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Zikhron Ya’akov and Kinneret – a pilgrimage site, that contributed to the design of the symbolic and civic landscape of the State of Israel
.

 

 

New Article: Masalha, Appropriation of Palestinian Place Names by the Israeli State

Masalha, Nur. “Settler-Colonialism, Memoricide and Indigenous Toponymic Memory: The Appropriation of Palestinian Place Names by the Israeli State.” Journal of Holy Land and Palestine Studies 14.1 (2015): 3-57.
 
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/hlps.2015.0103

 

Abstract
Cartography, place-naming and state-sponsored explorations were central to the modern European conquest of the earth, empire building and settler-colonisation projects. Scholars often assume that place names provide clues to the historical and cultural heritage of places and regions. This article uses social memory theory to analyse the cultural politics of place-naming in Israel. Drawing on Maurice Halbwachs’ study of the construction of social memory by the Latin Crusaders and Christian medieval pilgrims, the article shows Zionists’ toponymic strategies in Palestine, their superimposition of Biblical and Talmudic toponyms was designed to erase the indigenous Palestinian and Arabo-Islamic heritage of the land. In the pre-Nakba period Zionist toponymic schemes utilised nineteenth century Western explorations of Biblical ‘names’ and ‘places’ and appropriated Palestinian toponyms. Following the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948, the Israeli state, now in control of 78 percent of the land, accelerated its toponymic project and pursued methods whose main features were memoricide and erasure. Continuing into the post-1967 occupation, these colonial methods threaten the destruction of the diverse historical cultural heritage of the land.

 

 

 

New Article: Iancu et al, Social Anxiety Symptoms and Perfectionism among Israeli Jews and Arabs

Iancu, I., E. Bodner, S. Joubran, I. Ben Zion, and E. Ram. “Why Not the Best? Social Anxiety Symptoms and Perfectionism among Israeli Jews and Arabs: A Comparative Study.” Comprehensive Psychiatry  59 (2015): 33-44.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.comppsych.2014.11.010

 

Abstract

Background

Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) has been repeatedly shown to be very prevalent in the Western society and is characterized by low self-esteem, pessimism, procrastination and also perfectionism. Very few studies on SAD have been done in the Middle East or in Arab countries, and no study tackled the relationship between social anxiety symptoms and perfectionism in non-Western samples.

Methods

We examined social anxiety symptoms and perfectionism in a group of 132 Israeli Jewish (IJ) and Israeli Arab (IA) students. Subjects completed the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS), the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (MPS), the Negative Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire (ATQ-N), the Positive Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire (ATQ-P) and a socio-demographic questionnaire.

Results

The rate of SAD in our sample according to a LSAS score of 60 or more was 17.2% (IJ = 13.8%, IA = 19%, ns). The correlation between perfectionism and the LSAS was high in both groups, and in particular in the IJ group. The IA group had higher scores of social avoidance, of ATQ-P and of two of the MPS subscales: parental expectations and parental criticism. Concern over mistakes and negative automatic thoughts positively predicted social fear in the IJ group, whereas in the IA group being female, religious and less educated positively predicted social fear. Negative automatic thoughts and age positively predicted social avoidance in the IJ group. In general, the IJ and IA subjects showed higher social anxiety, higher ATQ-N scores and lower parental expectations as compared with non-clinical US samples.

Conclusions

Social anxiety symptoms and perfectionism are prevalent in Arab and Jewish students in Israel and seem to be closely related. Further studies among non-western minority groups may detect cultural influences on social anxiety and might add to the growing body of knowledge on this intriguing condition.

New Article: Sela-Shayovitz, The Role of Israeli Media in the Social Construction of Gang Rape

Sela-Shayovitz, Revital. “‘They Are All Good Boys’: The Role of the Israeli Media in the Social Construction of Gang Rape.” Feminist Media Studies (early view, online first).

 

URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14680777.2014.993675

 

Abstract

This paper analyzes the construction of incidents of gang rape in Israeli newspapers between the years 2000 and 2010. The study examines the differences between the news media framing of gang rape and individual rape. Results indicate that the coverage of gang rape significantly differs from that of individual rape. Newspaper coverage over-emphasizes instances of gang rape in relation to individual occurrences of rape by means of sensational headlines and “yellow” journalism. Moreover, the construction of gang rape reflects a convergence of gender, race, and class oppression through the blaming and marginalizing of victims, criminalizing rapists from socially marginal groups, and absolving offenders most closely associated with the upper middle class. These findings suggest that the Israeli media play a key role in perpetuating patriarchal hegemony and social inequality.

 

 

 

 

Cite: Abu-Rabia-Queder and Karplus, Bedouin women’s mobility higher education

Abu-Rabia-Queder, Sarab and Yuval Karplus. “Regendering Space and Reconstructing Identity: Bedouin Women’s Translocal Mobility into Israeli-Jewish Institutions of Higher Education.” Gender, Place & Culture 20.4 (2013): 470-86.

URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0966369X.2012.701200

Abstract

This article offers a geographic perspective on the mutually constitutive
relations between institutions of higher education and Bedouin women’s
gendered spaces, identities and roles. Situated beyond Bedouin women’s
permitted space and embedded in Israeli-Jewish space, institutions of
higher education are sites of displacement that present Bedouin women
students with new normative structures, social interactions and
opportunities for academic learning. As such, they become a discursive
arena for the articulation and reconstruction of their previously held
conceptions and identities. Often the journey to institutions of higher
education signifies for Bedouin women the first opportunity to venture
out of their community. Traveling to the university as students,
returning home as educated women and embarking on professional careers
outside tribal neighborhoods and villages involves moving across and
beyond different locales. Such translocal mobility necessitates constant
negotiation between seemingly contradictory cultural constructs and the
development of varied spatial bridging strategies. The article seeks to
contribute to Bedouin gender studies by going beyond the functional
role of higher education institutions as well as the gendered
hierarchies of women’s mobility, placing emphasis, instead, on the
effects of socio-spatial contextuality that shapes Bedouin women’s
experiences.